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Increased demand for South African mangoes in Europe

The mango season came to an early end in South Africa this season. It was by no means an easy season due to hail at the end of last year and extreme temperatures during the growing season. Erwee Topham from Alliance Fruit said that "The mango harvest finished at the end of February, around a month earlier than normal. We had hail damage in the Hoedspruit area which destroyed around half of our crop, but the lack of volumes did lead to better prices." Traditionally most of South Africa's mango export goes to Africa and the Middle East. Alliance Fruit mainly supply the South African supermarkets and the fresh cut industry and don't go directly to Africa, they do export to the Middle East and sent a container to Europe this year for the first time in years. "The price on EU markets is increasing and South African mangoes fit into a nice gap in the supply from South America. We supplied the same customers who also take our citrus. We only did one container this season but that will increase in the future," explains Erwee.